There are many ways to read a text. You can read from a psychoanalytical perspective, or examine a work as a cultural artifact. You may choose to focus on mythic and archetypal elements of a work, or on its moral and philosophical underpinnings. You may choose to construct a system based on the key signs in a text, or to deconstruct the apparent message of the text altogether. But the fact is, most of the time we don't venture too far beyond a text's face value—at least not consciously. Reading a text in a foreign language may encourage the tendency to read only for the most obvious level of meaning, which often means reading uniquely for the plot. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with seeking to understand the basic plot of a story. But if you stop there, you may miss the whole point. Take the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Bible. What happens? A father is asked by God to take his son up a mountain and kill him. At the last minute, the boy is spared and a ram is offered as a sacrifice instead. Imagine reading that story for the plot alone. It would be meaningless. Meaning does not come from plot alone, but from reflection. As you reflect on what you read, your knowledge and experience help make the text more relevant and meaningful. On one level, you may decide that the story of Abraham and Isaac is about obedience (obedience to an earthly father, obedience to God) or about faith. If you are also familiar with the New Testament, you may begin to make comparisons with the sacrifice of Christ. Knowledge that you bring to the text from exterior sources (history, other texts, scholarly commentary, your own experience, etc.) deepens your level of understanding and makes the reading a more meaningful experience.
As you read Le Lai du laüstic by Marie de France, you will progress from reading for plot to reading for meaning. You will first read to identify the characters and the action of the story. Next, you will learn to read for deeper meaning by linking the story to its cultural context.
Please note that you will see and hear two versions of the text: One written in Old French in octosyllabes—or lines of eight syllables each—and the other, a translation into modern French prose. If you are interested in the evolution of languages, you may want to compare the two versions. You are not expected to be able to understand Old French, but you may be curious to see (and hear) the lai in a form more representative of the Middle Ages.